Adventures of the Hullabaloo Crew

Jackson and his friend spent yesterday raking up leaves in the neighbors yards for a couple of dollars a piece. Jackson ended up making around $15. Thankfully, I've convinced him that buying Webkinz is a waste of money. I told him that money can actually grow if you keep it in a bank and he looked at me quizzically with a smirky smile..."really???", he said! I finally caught on with the scam as I saw the pile leaves grow in our yard. This was a scheme to amass a large pile of leaves in OUR yard so that all of the kids could jump in the biggest pile of leaves ever. He wanted to see if his pile could make the internet on the http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/ , and didn't want to move the pile until guinness had put him on the internet. I told him that I could put his picture on the internet and so here it is! I am paying him $5 to move the leaves that was already paid to move to our yard from our yard into the trash. In the case that Guinness needs the measurements ...

The 3 kids and I did a trail run today up to Mary's Rock. 40 minutes up, 25 minutes down. Mary's Rock is a rock at "nearly" the highest point on the Appalachian Trail in the state of Virginia. I believe that the highest point is just south at Hawksbill Peak. The trail runs north and south parallel to the sky line drive, which is a popular ride for folks in DC wanting to get away. The cool thing about the skyline drive is that it makes day hikes up and down the mountain to the appalachian trail possible for a very long stretch of the trail thru VA. We've done this particular hike perhaps 10 times over the past 5 years and it has definitely become a favorite. Here's how to get there...park at mile marker 33.5 on the skyline drive. If your coming from the west, I recommend going thru warrenton and jumping on 211 to cut onto the drive at about mile 32. For a day pass, you'll pay $15, but for the annual pass it's $30. They take credit cards. I recommend...